The traditional western riding stirrup helps dictate the position of the rider's body and legs while also providing a base of support for the rider. Stirrups are generally used in pairs, with one stirrup hanging on stirrup leathers on each side of the saddle. The stirrups hang from the saddle in position to accept the rider's feed when the rider is sitting in the saddle. Each stirrup includes generally a hanger for connecting to the stirrup leathers, two lateral sides, and a base or tread portion on which the rider's foot actually rests.
Traditionally, a new rider assumes a sitting position in a western saddle and adjusts the stirrup leather length in an attempt to place the bottom or base of each stirrup where it provides the most stability to the rider. Over an extended period of practice, the rider then learns to adjust their foot, leg, and body position to facilitate an acceptable horsemanship quality to the riding position.
There have been many variations in western stirrups. Common variations include variations in the length and width of the tread or base portion of the stirrup. In all of the numerous prior art variations in riding stirrups, however, the rider's weight was unevenly distributed on their feet. Specifically, straddling the horse placed greater pressure on the outer most side of the rider's feet and toes. This uneven pressure on the stirrups often resulted in numbness in the feet, knee, ankle, foot, and leg pain, blisters and general riding discomfort.
Traditional saddles were, and still are, built with a rearward seat pocket and the stirrup leathers hung generally forward on the saddle to allow riders to more easily spread their knees and adjust their leg and foot position to lessen the pressure on the outer edge of each foot. However, this solution to the problem of uneven pressure on prior art stirrups severely degraded the rider's balance. The more pressure that is added to the stirrups to control balance, the more torque is generated, on the feet, to force the riders' knees in toward the horse. The riders' balance is adversely affected since the rider's center of gravity is raised significantly.
The vertical balance saddle which is the subject of U.S. Pat. No. 5,953,889 severely, and by design, restricted the ability of the rider to adjust in the saddle. The saddle forces a pre-defined, good, and effective horsemanship position in the saddle. However, the riding position causes the base (sole) of the rider's feet to tip (horizontally) with the outer edge of each foot considerably lower (closer to the ground) than the inside edge of the foot. These same conditions were also evident to a lesser extent in prior western equestrian saddles.